SUNSHINE WEEK: Promo ads, infographics and more for the celebration of open government
-- NOTE: Sunshine Week is March 13-19

OUTDOOR LIVING: With articles on raising a puppy into a hunting dog, spring bass fishing and goose hunting

SPRING BREAK CALLOUT: For reader photos

ST. PATRICK'S DAY PAGE: Travel to Ireland

News

LIBYA CONTENT: Check out our collection of content related to unrest in Libya. We’ll add links as new content comes in, so check back often.
* Localization tip: If you have people in your town who have Libya connections, interview them for their take on the situation.

Lifestyles

KITCHEN CALL: Sunday Tomato Meat Sauce and Meatballs -- The meatballs are a merger of two or more meats. I use beef and pork. Chicken, if I want to get fancy. After I remove them from the pot, I give a couple of garlic cloves a walk around the bottom of the pot. That’s all. Linda Bassett/ MetroWest Daily News (Boston)

GARDENING: Japanese Umbrella Pine as old as dinosaurs -- The Umbrella Pine is actually not a pine at all. It is a coniferous evergreen that is now classified in its own family, the Sciadopitaceae. The Umbrella Pine can be traced to the Triassic period, some 250 million years ago, when the continents were joined and much of North America was near the equator. Jana Milbocker / Holliston TAB (Mass.)

ELIZABETH DAVIES: Busy mom doesn't have time for news - “Did you hear,” my friend asked casually last week, “that some of the legislators from Madison had come down to Rockford?” I stared back at her blankly. “You know,” she prodded, “because of the protests?” Operation Blank Stare continued. “Oh, come on, journalist!” she chided. “Pick up the newspaper!” By Elizabeth Davies, Rockford, Ill.

WOOD ON WORDS: 'Offal’ is awful but not the same thing - The past two weeks I’ve written about the most frequently mixed-up sound-alike words encountered in my years as a copy editor. As a bit of a departure, here are some relatively new ones that aren’t contenders for the list — not yet, anyway. By Barry Wood, Rockford, Ill.

SUZETTE MARTINEZ STANDRING: Pay life’s rent through service - Hubert “Hubie” Eugene Jones is a historic crusader for Boston’s youth. If kids were served by radical social reform during the past 50 years, then Jones was behind it. “Service is the rent you pay for living,” he said. By Suzette Martinez Standring, The Patriot Ledger.

CHARLOTTE GUEDRY: Making good guys newsworthy -- What is it we find so boring about good news or good guys? Why don’t we, as journalists, feel that the wonderful should be celebrated just as much as the bad? I’m going to take this time and highlight the people who have done the right thing this week. I’m going to thank them and make their actions newsworthy. The Weekly Citizen (La.)

Entertainment

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: The talented Judith Leger - Judith Leger’s personal essay “A Heart of Compassion” appeared in “Chicken Soup for Mother and Son Soul,” and again as one of the 101 Best in “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Tales of Golf and Sport.” Yet, surprisingly, this talented writer’s preferred genre is paranormal/fantasy romance. From the mysterious specters in “Heart’s Reunion” to an exotic white dragon living on a desolate world in the soon-to-be-released “Dragon’s Wish,” Leger explores magic, illusion, relationships that should never be, and how love can overcome all obstacles – even death and planets a universe away. By DA Kentner, Freeport, Ill.

HALL PASS REVIEW: Movie review: Farrelly brothers' 'Hall Pass' poops out in the end - If you’re not cool with broad caricatures and rampant stereotyping, you might want to distance yourself from the latest Farrelly brothers comedy, "Hall Pass," which features an array of off-color gags that can easily be divided into three distinct food groups: male anatomy, bowel movements and getting high. By Al Alexander, The Patriot Ledger.

FARRELLY BROTHERS: Farrelly brothers look past ‘Hall Pass’ and gear up for Sox, Stooges - When you first meet Peter and Bobby Farrelly, what strikes you is just how normal the native Rhode Islanders are when separated from their bag of scatological tricks. I try repeatedly to get them to say something as outrageous as the scene in their latest movie, “Hall Pass,” in which a young woman spews diarrhea across a bathroom wall. But their answers are as pinched as Ben Stiller’s manhood in “There’s Something About Mary.” By Al Alexander, The Patriot Ledger.

GENTLE MAN REVIEW: Movie review: Small Norwegian comedy makes big impression - It’s not easy to come by Norwegian films about sex, food and crime. At least not many that are also comedies. But “A Somewhat Gentle Man” fits that bill, and it features a ponytailed, mostly blank-faced Stellan Skarsgard (“Mamma Mia!”, “Good Will Hunting”) as an ex-con who’s just finished a 12-year stretch for murder. By Ed Symkus, The Patriot Ledger.

MUSIC SCENE: Young Neal & the Vipers return better than ever -- The year is only a couple of months old and already it has provided a boon for music fans, with the reformation of Young Neal & the Vipers, one of the hottest blues-rock outfits of the 1980s-’90s. Jay N. Miller/ The Patriot Ledger (Mass.)

MUSIC PREVIEW: Flogging Molly and the Green 17 tour -- Flogging Molly has been around long enough now that their own traditions have come to the fore. One of them is the Green 17 tour, always around St. Patrick’s Day, and now in its seventh installment. Fans get the full-on Molly experience of Celtic rock, razor-wire punk and rousing lyrics. Chad Berndtson/ The Patriot Ledger
* Localization tip: List the time, date and location if the Green 17 tour is visiting your area.

More in movies and music at http://www.gatehousenewsservice.com/entertainment

PHILIP MADDOCKS: Lawmakers conclude that democracy is no longer affordable - The House vote this week to slash democracy from the federal budget shows how powerfully the anti-spending fervor of the fall elections is driving the electorate’s efforts to shrink government. By Philip Maddocks, MetroWest, Mass.

KENT BUSH: Bad guys seem to stay one step ahead - Most legislation is like the medication advertised on television. It may solve one problem, but the potential side effects are sometimes worse than the condition the medication treats. I think it is funny that a Saudi Arabian in Texas can buy all of the materials he needs to make an explosive to threaten former President George W. Bush's home from Amazon.com, but a 17-year-old can't buy a box of Sudafed if their nose is runny. By Kent Bush, Augusta, Kan.

JARED OLAR: Political theater at Wisconsin protests -- Before long, the curtain will fall on the drama in Wisconsin. The Democrat legislators can’t stay away forever. The best they can hope for is to delay a vote on the union provisions of the budget — a vote the Republicans are guaranteed to win. Pekin Daily Times (Ill.)

MICHAEL WINSHIP: GOP, Gov. Walker living in states of denial -- Although Gov. Walker claims Wisconsin is in desperate financial straits, according to Madison’s Capital Times newspaper, the state “has managed so well, in fact, that the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau recently released a memo detailing how the state will end the 2009-11 budget biennium with a budget surplus.” Messenger Post (N.Y.)

Business

ERIC P. BLOOM: Succession planning - If your boss came to you today and told you to start making plans for your replacement, you would probably think it’s a bad thing. Well, in some cases it might be a bad thing. Then again, if your company is in the process of creating a company-wide succession plan, it’s actually a good thing. By Eric P. Bloom, GHNS columnist.

Sports

2011 MLB PREVIEW: Tribune Media Services is offering GateHouse Media newspapers use of their division-by-division preview materials. Follow the link below to go to the materials.
* Each division preview has player images and team logos. THE PLAYER IMAGES ARE ONLY FOR USE WITH THESE PREVIEWS. The logos may be used with any stories about the teams.

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